He kept demanding.
He kept insisting.
He just couldn’t stop repeating “50pesewas for bread”!!

Where’s his family? His mother. Why is a little boy out topless and barefoot on an angry sunny day? Why is he begging me? Why me?? Why was he insisting? Why 50pesewas for bread when he could have had lollipop that costs the same amount for his satisfaction?

Maybe I’m justifying my reasons for rejecting the little boy’s offer, but hey, I didn’t have any money left. It didn’t seem right anyway.

Nevertheless, this is morally wrong… Just wrong. Here’s a boy child on the streets begging for less than a Cedi whilst his mates are in school learning the ways of ABCD. If I’d been born poor in some other world with a boy child this young, I’d keep him home and nurture him with the little I’ve got.

I bet anyone who’s been to Accra has had some experience with the ‘Cheerful Street Beggars’ mostly stationed at the Accra Mall. Those children intrigue me. I satisfied my nosiness one weekend when I sat one down and asked why she wanted my money.

‘To buy rice’, she replied.‘But I have just GHC1.00. You can’t get a plate of rice with that’‘You can give it to me. Rice is 1.50pesewas. Someone else will give me 50pesewas, then I’ll buy rice and eat it’, she said smiling.

Hah!!

I gave her GHC1.00 for being one little impressive child. I could’ve given her the 1.50pesewas she requested for, but then she asked for GHC1.00 anyway. The moment she left, a fellow Cheerful Street Beggar came to me also requesting for GHC1.00

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I heard their parents shall not accept any other form of sponsorship or permit adoption, but money. These vulnerable kids are a source of livelihood; a means to an end. Some cultures are just someway be.